When it comes to reaching out to your customers, your primary objective is to engage them. But if you have a number of people of different ages and backgrounds on your mailing list, then it may be hard to personalize your mailed content.

In an age where we can optimize just about anything to suit the needs of our consumers, mail and printing services haven’t been left in the dust. In fact, thanks to variable data printing, modern printing services are more sophisticated and flexible than ever.

What is variable data printing?

VDP, also known as one-to-one marketing or personalized printing, is one of many digital printing services. However, this type of printing allows printed information to vary from one piece to the next, within the same order. VDP uses additional information from a database on file to customize the content of each piece based on customer information. Age, gender, and interests are just some things that may change the layout of the content to make the marketing piece more relevant to the prospect.

Why is variable data printing useful?

This technique is primarily used in direct marketing, customer relationship management, advertising, invoicing, and applying addresses on self-mailers, brochures, and postcards. Some companies completely forego customization for the sake of convenience, but a letter that starts with “Dear Customer” isn’t likely to see much engagement. In the past, even changing something as simple as a name from letter-to-letter presented a huge challenge. But with variable data printing, your organization’s printed content can be personalized for the recipient.

When your messaging requires that personal touch, digital printing services like VDP are your best bet.

How does VDP work?

VDP employs the use of software to customize portions of printable content. Some things that could vary depending on the customer include font size, color, and style, as well as the addition of photographs (color or black and white), or other graphics.

The VDP software registers the need for customized artwork on a particular page and pools information from the customer’s profile in a separate database in order to choose an image that is relevant to them specifically. Typically customers say that only 31% of direct mail contains useful, personalized information. Integrating custom information may help your customers in the long run.

For example, if a travel agency is offering a deal on trip consultations, they won’t want to send out the same offer to each customer. They should know what kind of places their customers like to travel to. One customer might be mailed a custom brochure that offers trips to European countries, while others may be mailed offers for the American southwest. The idea is to be relevant to what the customers wants and needs are, that is what will drive higher response rates.

Variable data printing may seem like a complicated undertaking for a direct mail communication, but it will increase response rates! It will allow you to narrow down your target market, personalize the communication to your target market and give personalized offers/promotions that are relevant to that marketing…which will in turn increase your response rates! Let Modern Mail and Print Solutions help you better your mail marketing strategy to increase consumer engagement and increase response rates

Offset Printing vs. Digital Printing

Which is the better fit for your project – offset printing, or digital printing?

Two choices await you when you walk in with a large printing project – offset printing or digital printing. These two printing styles have been around for years (well, one far longer than the other), and both have their advantages. Here’s what you need to know.

The Tampa Bay PCC has recognized Modern Mail & Print Solutions as the 2013 Small Market Business of the Year! This is a tremendous honor for us and we are extremely grateful for the recognition. The reason for our success though is because of our great and loyal customers like you so a big THANK YOU for helping us achieve this great honor! We are excited to build on this success with you in 2014!

Recent facility closures have brought huge changes to the Mailing industry, increasing costs and slowing down delivery times. In addition, these changes have impacted our local area making it more difficult for local mailers to achieve SCF Discounts in both Tampa and St. Petersburg. Previously, if you owned a permit at either Tampa or St. Petersburg and you were mailing into that area, you automatically received a $.04 discount for entering your mail into the Bulk Mailing Facility. Now as of January 5, 2015 to qualify for SCF discounts, mailers will no longer be able to achieve that discount at the BMEU (Bulk Mailing Facility) and are now required to enter mail at the identified SCF location for that mail. So this means if you own a permit in Tampa or St. Petersburg, for you to achieve the SCF discount there will be a Drop Ship Charge associated with that mailing because those facilities are not SCF locations. These changes may cause you to see either higher postage costs or an additional Drop Ship charge with your mail.

Effective January, 2014, the use of the Full-Service Intelligent Mail service is required for all mailers to qualify for the Automation Discounted prices. With this ruling going into effect by the US Postal Service, Modern Mail & Print Solutions will be transitioning into Full-Service capabilities to ensure our customers will continue to achieve the best postage prices available. “This is a huge process and transition for our company, but one that was necessary.” said VP of Operation Shane Cosser. “With this move to Full-Service, we will be more efficient from a mailing stand point and be able to continue to service our customers the way they’ve become accustom to.”

The Tampa Postal Customer Council has name Modern Mail & Print Solutions this year’s Print Sponsor for the National PCC Day held on September 18th. For more information on this event, please visit www.TampaPCC.org

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The Make-A-Wish Foundation is hosting their 17th Annual Night of the Iguana Fundraising event on September 27th from 7 – 11 at the Mainsail Suites Hotel in Tampa, FL. For more information on the event, log onto http://NightoftheIguana.WishCentral.org

The revised standards for Folded Self-Mailers will go into effect on January 5th, 2013. These new standards are intended to provide mailers more mail piece design options, while balancing design innovation and machinability to improve the overall supply chain. With these new standards in effect, the final fold will have to be on the bottom of the mail piece and for oblong pieces the final fold needs to be on the leading edge. This will also require a minimum of two tabs to be used and they cannot be placed on the bottom edge of oblong pieces any longer. For more information, click here.

At the National TPCC (Tampa Postal Customer Council) day held on 9/19/12, Modern Mail & Print Solutions was recognized by Debbie Gornik, the newly appointed Postmaster of Tampa, for their outstanding job as the Print Sponsor for the National TPCC event. Modern was acknowledged by the TPCC for their excellent work and service in helping make the National TPCC Day a successful event.

Modern Mail & Print Solutions, a proud supporter of the Make A Wish foundation, is this year’s Print Sponsor for the Make A Wish Foundation’s 16th
Annual Night of the Iguana event Friday, September 28th. Details for this event can be found here.

At Modern Mail & Print Solutions, our mission is to provide our customers with industry leading print and mail solutions, while operating business at the highest possible standards of excellence and ethics. Modern Mail & Print Solutions is a one-stop shop which provides a range of services in-house to support all your business needs.